As we speak, we are waiting for the final round of European football before the European competitions take a break until end of January 2025. The Champions League fixtures have already been played, with Manchester City the only English side not booking a win:
| DATE | HOME | AWAY | RESULT |
| 10/12/24 | Girona | Liverpool | 0-1 |
| 10/12/24 | RB Leipzig | Aston Villa | 2-3 |
| 11/12/24 | Juventus | Manchester City | 2-0 |
| 11/12/24 | Arsenal | Monaco | 3-0 |
The likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham still have a mid-week European fixture to go, though, so keep that in mind when planning your transfers for FPL Gameweek 16. That goes for the Blues (if any 1st teamers do travel to Astana) and the Spurs in particular, as they both have a favourable fixture coming up in the Premier League: Brentford at home and Southampton away, respectively.
| DATE | HOME | AWAY | COMPETITION |
| 12/12/24 | Viktoria Plzen | Manchester United | Europa League |
| 12/12/24 | Rangers | Spurs | Europa League |
| 12/12/24 | FC Astana | Chelsea | Conf. League |
Don’t forget, the deadline for gameweek 16 is set at 13h30 (UK time) on Saturday, December 14th, 2024. The free to play FPL or pay to play season/weekend/daily games like FanTeam are ideal ways of following the Premier League action.
Most transferred in/transferred out players (as per December 12th, 2024)
| TRANSFERS OUT | TRANSFERS IN | POSSIBLE REASONS | |
| GK | Onana (MUN), Kelleher (LIV), Sanchez (CHE) | Raya (ARS), Kelleher (LIV), Sanchez (CHE) | |
| DEF | Gabriel (ARS), Gvardiol (MCI), Lewis (MCI) | Saliba (ARS), Timber (ARS), Alexander-Arnold (LIV) | Saliba 2 returns in a row + good fixtures, Lewis suspended, Gabriel injury doubt |
| MID | Smith Rowe (FUL), Mbeumo (BRE), Bruno (MUN) | Enzo (CHE), Palmer (CHE), Salah (LIV) | Salah unstoppable at the moment, Palmer form + fixtures, Enzo cheap + fixtures + fixtures, Mbeumo difficult fixtures |
| FOR | Watkins (AST), Haaland (MCI), Welbeck (BRI) | Isak (NEW), Wood (NFO), Vardy (LEI) | Vardy and Wood form, Isak form + fixtures, Watkins injury doubt |
Premium pick
As we have done on a few earlier occasions this season when Chelsea had a decent Premier League fixture after a European mid-week, we are taking Cole Palmer (£11.1m) as our premium fantasy pick. The Blues star is, of course, one of the best players in the league and one of the most coveted players in the official fantasy game, but that’s not our only reason for picking him for Gameweek 16. Palmer has also been excluded from Chelsea’s player list for the current first half of the European season, which means that he is not eligible to appear in the Conference League until at least the end of January, when the European competitions pick up again. That, in turn, means the youngster is rested and ready to fire when Chelsea host Brentford on Sunday afternoon. While the Bees have been doing fine so far, taking 23 points from their first 15 league games, this is mainly from their home matches and they have also conceded 28 goals over that same run. That’s a total only surpassed by Wolves (38), Southampton (31) and Leicester City (30), which makes us think Palmer has got some good chances this weekend to build on his current tallies of 11 goals and 7 assists.
Non-premium pick
We highlighted Kaoru Mitoma (£6.6m) a few weeks ago as a stand-out replacement for Mbeumo as Brentford was about to embark on a long run of challenging fixtures. The Japan international then immediately returned with a goal and 10 FPL points against Southampton, before blanking twice in GW14 (away at Fulham) and GW15 (away at Leicester). While we won’t lie about those blanks not being a little bit disappointing, we do feel that it’s wise to keep confidence in Mitoma for now. The winger is a nailed-on part of Brighton’s starting lineup, and he already has 3 goals and 3 assists to his name. On top of that, after this weekend’s clash with Crystal Palace at home, the Seagulls are travelling to West Ham in Gameweek 17 before hosting West Ham in Gameweek 18. Not the easiest of games, but those two sides do have a defensive weakness on their right side, which is exactly where Mitoma will be trying to make the difference.
The budget enabler
We’ve got a couple of excellent budget enablers on our radar in the build-up to Gameweek 16, but we can only pick one, so we went with Enzo Fernandez (£5.0m). You may have noticed the Argentinian’s name in the overview of ingoing and outgoing transfers for GW16 at the start of this article and wondered why he was suddenly picking up so many new owners. You’ll understand when you check out his recent stats, because rather quietly, the World Cup winner has been delivering returns in each of his last five league games: 3 goals, 3 assists and 1 clean sheet for a total of 39 FPL points. Since his return to Chelsea’s starting lineup in GW12, Fernandez has been playing in a more attacking role and it seems to be suiting him. As a matter of fact, since that same gameweek, the Argentinian is ranked third amongst all midfielders in the official fantasy game for Non-penalty Expected Goal Involvement (NPxGI). If he can continue in this vein, his current price tag of just £5.0m will be considered a joke in no time at all.
The differential
Southampton’s woes in the back have been mentioned once or twice in this article already, and we’re mentioning them again as part of the intro of our Gameweek 16 differential fantasy pick. That’s because the Saints are visiting Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon and we are picking Tottenham’s Dejan Kulusevski (£6.3m). The Swedish forward/winger has started 13 out of 15 league games so far under manager Ange Postecoglou this season, in which he managed 3 goals and 3 assists. Not amazing numbers, which surely has to do with Spurs’ unpredictable match form, but showing potential, nonetheless. The Londoners now have an interesting run of fixtures coming up with Southampton away, Liverpool at home, Nottingham Forest away and Wolves at home over the next four, and we feel that makes Kulusevski an interesting differential option. As we said before, Spurs are one of the most unpredictable sides in the Prem at the moment, both in terms of performance and results, but we would not be surprised to see their Swedish international pick up a few more attacking returns over the coming gameweeks.
The (vice-)captaincy
With Liverpool hosting Fulham on Saturday and Chelsea playing in front of their own fans against Brentford on Sunday, the captaincy debate will clearly focus on Mohamed Salah versus Cole Palmer. We have decided to put the armband on the former, though we did so on a coin toss.
Outside of the two big boys mentioned above, Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka at home to Everton looks interesting as well, as does Newcastle’s Alexander Isak at home to Leicester. More differential captain picks would include Kaoru Mitoma at home to Crystal Palace, Dejan Kulusevski for Spurs’ visit to Southampton and Kevin de Bruyne in front of the City fans against arch rivals Manchester United.
For further thoughts and discussions (including minleagues and side games) on the FPL season visit FISO’s FPL forum.